Its cold!

Am back to the cold and I'm writing in afer quite a while. Somehow time just flies by with mum-papa. Had their celebrations for the new house yesterday. The days before have gone by in shopping for the doll and her mom:-) Did I mention I'm going to Hong Kong to meet them. Counting the minutes.....

Viva La Gaul!

Before leaving Guwahati, a recording of 'Asterix in Corsica'. Love the names of the guests....
PetitSuix from Switzerland, Huevos Y Bacon from Spain, InstantMix from Rome (;-)). And then the others, all in a row, AntiClimax, MyKingdomForAnos, OverOptimistix, Mcanix, Dipsomaniax. Followed by the imaginary countries Jellibabix from Lugdunum, Drinklikafix from Massilia, Seniorservix from Gesocribatum, Winesanspirix the Arvernian.
Before I continue, this song gives me goose - bumps every time I hear it. Would I ever have left home if not for Tweedledum.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_VymClIJzo. Amazing composition.
And then to get back to Asterix - the name of the Corsican - BoneyWasAWarriorWayayix. The others PotatoGnocchix, Lasagnix, SemolinaGnocchix, Raviolix, Spaghettix, Cannellonix, Tagliatellix.
And now to get back to packing.

Clean - up

My mailbox can do with a clean-up and the best way to do that will be to start posting all the recipes collected over the past year. Beginning with the end, La Vierge (;-)) sent me a copy of her recipe. This was the chicken curry she had cooked for the welcome week and it was really delicious!!

Volaille au curry (serves 4):

Chicken 1.5 kgs
Onion 1 large, chopped finely
Shallot 1 chopped finely
Apple 1
Lime 1 juiced
Flour 2 tablespoons
Oil 2 tbsp
Crème fraiche 2 tbsp
Curry powder (french) 1 tbsp
Coconut milk 1 dl
Chicken stock 2 dl
Garlic 1 pressed clove
Salt & pepper to taste
Basmati rice as accompaniment

Cut chicken in 8-10 pieces
Sautee with oil, chopped onion, shallot, salt & pepper.
When golden, add curry powder, garlic, flour, mix.
Then add coconut milk & stock.
Bring to a boil, add apple pieces, lime juice, cook 20mns.
Take chicken pieces out. Cook sauce to thicken, add crème fraiche.
Add sauce to chicken pieces & serve hot w/basmati rice.

Modern day parables

It felt like Atlas Shrugged revisited:

OLD VERSION..... The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast alongwith other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Kofi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later... The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley 100s of grasshoppers die of starvation somewhere in India...

Uruka-Bihu

If an alien was looking at Assam from space today, he would collapse at the amount people can eat!! Our menu for the day - Wanton soup, grilled chicken, duck, fish, vegetables, pulses.....but, of course, we are not celebrating Bihu this year...whew!!!!
I've gone light on the lunch. Thought I would have only oranges. That was before ma decided that the additonal dish on the table should be ambol....and my dietary restrictions came crashing down.
Tips picked up during the day:
Momo Soup: For the soup, boil (pressure cook) water, ginger, garlic, chilli, onion, one small chicken. When done sieve and blend the chicken mixture. Heat oil. Add a small onion, sliced garlic and the chicken blend. Cook for sometime and then add the chicken stock, salt, pepper ad lemon grass. Add the momos when this mixture comes to a boil.
Now to the momos. For the filling, heat oil, add onion, ginger, garlic and then the chicken kheema. Let it cook till all the water evaporates. Simultaneously, mix maida (flour/ farine) and water. Roll the small balls into very fine sheets. Fill a spoonfull and decoratively close the top. I remember once picking up momo/ spring roll sheets from the chinese store in Paris. Hopefully it will be available in London also. Will be quite a time-saver. The soup was so creamy and delicious.
As for the grilled chicken, it was marinated in the standard chinese elements - vinegar, soya sauce, salt. Before grilling coat with a pinch of salt, red chilli powder, oil and dab the soya sauce mixture. Sooo juicy.
And now for the tenga anja. Yesterday, I realised a big mistake I commonly make. Instead of mustard seeds, I always tend to use methi seeds. Anyway, coat fish with salt and haldi. Fry and keep aside. Heat oil. Add bay leaf, mustard seeds and a vegetable. The vegetable can be selected from any of the healthy, watery vegetables. In Fonty, I always ended up using courgette. Add salt and tumeric. Cover and cook. Add tomatoes. Cover - cook. Add water. Let it boil and then add fish. In the end, squeeze a lemon before serving.

BOOM!!

I know, I know - calling it adventure tourism is a little, no quite, heartless on my part but it is after all the first time for me and so long as there are no casualties.....now to go into the details:
The scene: Ma and me shopping for fish and vegetables.
We had been hurrying through because Deuta was home alone and for some reason ma was having a slightly bad feeling and felt we should get home in good time. Almost over - we had just stopped for some onions when there was this loud bang. To my untutored ear, it sounded like a fire cracker which I didn't even register but the vegetable vendor and ma looked at each other and spoke simultaneously - 'Bomb!' She practically threw the money down and rushed me through. Meanwhile the vendors were all looking at each other - silent stares. Out on the street, there was pandemonium. People were all running in one direction, away from the sound. Things had fallen off carts. In a distance, Tweedledum and were running towards us with panic stricken faces. It seems the impact of the blast had shaken up the car and lit up the sky with a red flame. All around people were shouting while some geniuses like me were still debating whether it was the wheel of a truck which had burst or a cracker. We got home at full speed to find Deuta pacing at the front door.
My first adventure with the north - east.
And now on to the second. The scene - Deuta fast asleep. Ma working at the table. Tweedledum and on youtube and me, all cosy in bed reading Sherlock Holmes. Suddenly ma came running in and switched off all the lights. Panic in the house along with shushing sounds. It took me a while to notice the search light going all around as well as the gunshots being fired. What is it - army checking, breaking into a safe house or is it the SULFA? All of us silent till the sounds faded away and the cavalcade of cars drove away. Wonder what it was.
For a brief background on these experiences: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=79196

Whole family's together

Picked up from the airport on Saturday and since then the two bros have been creating non-stop laughter. And, of course, the eating session continues.
Ma with Ambol yesterday - A little oil, a bay leaf and 1 tsp of mustard seeds. 30 seconds and tehn add about 5 tomatoes. Let it cook and continue with tamaring and jaggery. 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp sugar. Let it cook. Delicious! And with plain rice - words fail!!!
And at another dinner invite last night, the chicken - Say for one kilo chicken, grind one kilo onions. Fry the onions and garlic. Add cummin seeds, salt and pepper and then the chicken. Let it cook. Again the taste was brilliant.
And at the end, what can you expect. For lunch yesterday, ma suggested I make the chicken and the dessert. With all this brilliant food, I was sweating with nervousness. And the brain went into total hibernation. Of all the assortment of poultry I have been cooking like forever, I could think of no chicken recipe. In the end had to experiment - I put everything I had into the chicken - onions, yoghurt, tomatoes, coconut milk - you name it - it went in. As for dessert - matar kheer. I am sure I could have done something just a little more conventional.....
was talking about a gay on his campus and cracking crazy jokes, and ma very seriously comments - Imaan bya kotha pati-pati, mon to bya hoi zabo...the two guys were flat on the floor:-)..has now taken it up as a challenge to prove his 'right wing';-) views at the earliest.

Just eating

A round of momos, tenga anja, chicken roll and mishti doi - all in a day. Jaggery sandesh is on morning, noon and night. The good part (the best part, of curse, is that I'm getting all of it to eat) is that I am finally seeing my weight on my own weighing machine, which is certainly more friendly than others of its ilk - you know you're being cheated but then....the human mind searches for small pleasures.
I plan on sitting with ma to get the local recipes and then record them for posterity. As a starter, a dish from one of the lunches, which I cooked with ma's instructions:
1. About six pieces of fish marinated in salt and tumeric for about 15-20 minutes. Heat mustard oil and fry the pieces till golden brown.
2. Simultaneously, blend about 10 leaves of spinach, 20 gms of coriander, 4-5 flakes of garlic, a small piece of ginger and 2-3 green chillis with about three -fourth glass of water.
3. In 1 tbsp of steaming oil, add 1 tsp of mustard powder, half an onion and some peas/ cauliflower. Fry a minute and add the spinach paste.
4. Allow it to come to a boil and then add the fish pieces. Thereafter, another full-fledged boil and apres ca simmer till gravy gets thick.
It took about half an hour for the gravy to get thick - enough time to finish the sarvangasana cycle, the paschimittanasana cycle and a couple of assorted asanas totalling 3-4 minutes.
An afterthought: Deuta on the intelligence of different races - 'A jew is just a gujju without the goo.'

Guwahati

After a day of fog, cancelled flights, multiple telephone calls and bitten finger nails, we are finally in Guwahati. Ma-deuta looking the same, the house the same but a photo of Koka on the table. A strange feeling. It seems Nanaji asked Tweedledum what the plans for Guwahati were and he was a little stumped. This is the first time we dont directly say we'll be going to Jorhat for a couple of days - no more.....Ma said - 'I'm happy - I did all and I couldnt have done anymore'. What a satisfying feeling.
I hope the next two weeks go by smoothly. Feeling more mature within. Help me not to complicate my life sans reason.